Press Room

Sidewalk Construction to Start Along Edge of Shelburne Museum

SHELBURNE, Vt. (July 27, 2012) Construction of a new sidewalk along Shelburne Road is scheduled to start in early August, giving pedestrians a dedicated walkway along the western side of the busy thoroughfare that passes through the village of Shelburne.

The sidewalk is being constructed as part of a building and landscaping plan for Shelburne Museum that includes the $7 million Center for Art and Education, currently under construction.

“The sidewalk is part of the landscaping plan for Shelburne Museum’s campus opening it up so it is more visible and better integrates the museum and the village,” said Chip Stulen, director of buildings.

The sidewalk will stretch from the museum’s covered bridge along Shelburne Road and eventually curve into the museum entrance. It will be built in two phases. The initial phase will start at the covered bridge and go south about 1,600 feet.

Next spring phase two will start extending the sidewalk along the construction site and into the museum. This first phase of sidewalk construction is scheduled to be complete in September.

In conjunction with the walkway, iron fence will be installed replacing the wooden one currently in place along Shelburne Road.

Meanwhile, construction is underway on the Center for Art and Education. The new center will become the museum’s flagship building with galleries, classrooms and an auditorium and will be open year round. Currently the museum is open from mid-May through October.

Crews have been working on the 17,000 square-foot building’s foundation and will soon start pouring concrete flooring. Steel framing for the building is scheduled to be erected in the early fall, said John Lavoie, superintendant with PC Construction.

The building was designed by Ann Beha Architects, a Boston-based firm that specializes in museum design. Opening is scheduled for fall 2013. The museum is in the midst of a $14 million capital campaign for the building along with a campus-wide communications infrastructure and an endowment for the ongoing care and maintenance of the building.

AboutShelburne Museum: Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont is one of North America’s finest, most diverse and unconventional museums of art, design and Americana. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in a remarkable setting of 37 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the museum grounds. In fall 2013 Shelburne Museum will open the Center for Art and Education, with galleries, classrooms and an auditorium transforming the museum from seasonal to year round operation.